Faculty
Focus is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments,
and honors of the University of Houston Law Center Faculty.

March 2001

David
R. Dow's book, The Machinery of Death, will be
published by Routledge Press.

Sanford
Gaines will becontributing chapters to three book projects:
1) a chapter on U.S. trade and environmental policy during the 1990's for a
book by the Environmental Law Institute on U.S. actions toward sustainable development
in the last decade, 2) a contribution on environmental issues in investor-state
arbitrations under NAFTA for a University of Toronto book on trade, environment,
and society, and 3) a chapter for a book on the first seven through eight years
of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. He also spoke
to the Young Professionals Group of the Houston World Affairs Council on March
7th on "Sustainable Development: The Road Less Traveled By."
He will be on a panel on transboundary environmental issues at the annual conference
of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies in Houston on March
24th.

Stephen
Huber's article, "International ADR in the 1990s: The Top Ten
Developments" will appear in the Houston Business & Tax Law Journal.
He will also be teaching a two week arbitration course this summer at Pepperdine
Law School in Malibu, Californiaand speaking on an arbitration topic
at a joint session of the Sections on Alternative Dispute Resolution and Litigation
at the American Bar Association Annual Convention.

Craig
Joyce received word that Copyright Law (5th
Ed.2000) has entered its second printing. The first printing sold out after
only one semester in fine bookstores everywhere. At 46 adoptions, the book is
used from Yale to USC and remains the most widely adopted work in its field.

Peter
Linzer spokeon February 23, 2001 at a
conference held at the University of Texas Law School on Access to Justice.
It was jointly sponsored by the AALS, the Texas Supreme Court, University of
Houston Law Center and other law schools. He spoke on sensitizing first year
contracts students to the inadequacy of legal representation even in a private
law area such as contracts. Sandy Guerra Thompson, Ellen Marrus
and Bob Schuwerk were also on the program.

Douglas
Moll's article, "Shareholder Oppression
in Close Corporations: The Unanswered Question of Perspective" 53 Vand.
L. Rev. 749, was cited in the leading national treatise on close corporations.
See F. Hodge O'Neal & Robert B. Thompson, O'Neal's Close Corporations:
Law & Practice sec. 9.27, at 9-162.

Tom
Oldham will participate on a panel regarding
unmarried partners at the AALS Family Law Section Conference in Palm Springs.

Michael
A. Olivas was reappointed to chair the AAUP Legal
Defense Fund, which supports faculty litigation on matters of tenure and academic
freedom. Speaking of reappointments, he chaired the Search Community for the
Bauer College of Business dean for the third consecutive year; in February,
the committee gave two names to the Provost, giving rise to the hope that Michael
will finally be relieved of this duty. In Austin, he testified before the Higher
Education Committee of the Texas House of Representatives on two consecutive
weeks; the first testimony was in favor of a bill to extend Texas residency
benefits, while the second was in favor of a bill that would eliminate alumnus
legacy points for admissions to public colleges in the state. The March ABA
Student Lawyer carried a story about law student loans, which cited his forthcoming
book from Johns Hopkins University Press, Dollars, Scholars, and Public Policy:
Financing College Debt in the 21st Century. In the article, when
stating that students should not work during their first year of law school,
he was quoted giving this timeless advice, "Borrow, beg, throw yourself
on the mercy of your grandparents." (at 27)

Laura
Oren, Joe Vail, Tom Oldham, and Steve Mintz (College
of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences) are the organizers of the Tenneco Symposium
for 2001 on "Families in Crisis: Immigration and Families" scheduled
for March 23, 2001 at the Hilton Hotel from noon to 5p.m. The keynote speaker
is Doris Meissner, former Director of INS and currently at the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace. She will be speaking on "Family: The Cornerstone
of United States Immigration Policy?" Participants include City Council
Member Gordon Quan; prominent immigration attorney Peter D. Williamson, Dr.
Katherine Donato (Sociology-Rice); Dr. Patrick McColloster, Baylor and Casa
de Amigos Clinic; Robert Palm, director of refugee services for Interfaith Ministries
of Greater Houston; Dr. Patrick Leung (UH GSSW); Dr. Lawrence Hogue, Professor
of English, UH; Dr. Nestor Rodriguez, Sociology, UH; Sarah Cortez, Visiting
Scholar (and poet), UH Center for Mexican American Studies; and introducers
and moderators Associate Dean Sandy GuerraThompson, Laura
Oren, Joseph Vail, Mary Anne Bobinski, Steven Mintz and J.
Thomas Oldham.

Jordan
Paust will be a member of two panels at the annual
meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. in
April. The first panel deals with universal jurisdiction over international
crimes and the second deals with the U.S. lawyer statesman at times of crisis.
He also participated in an amici brief of law professors in Doe v. Unocal before
the 9th Circuit, in an affidavit of law professors in a case involving
rights of native Hawaiian people in the federal district court in Hawaii, and
was chosen to contribute a section on "International Process" in the
Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies (Oxford University Press 2002).

Nancy
Rapoport has been recommended by Law Center Admissions
Council Chair, Rennard Strickland, to fill one of three positions on LSAC's
Board of trustees. She was selected from nominations submitted by member schools.

Ira
B. Shepard spoke on "Recent Developments in Business Taxation:
With Emphasis on Oil and Gas Taxation" at the Southwestern Legal Foundation's
52nd Annual Institute on Oil & Gas Law and Taxation in San Antonio
on February 16th (with Professor Martin McMahon of the University
of Florida Law School). The paper will be published by Matthew Bender later
this year. He spoke on "Ethical Rules Governing Lawyers, Roosters and Other
Professionals Relating to Sex With Clients, etc." at a Houston Bar Association
CLE program on February 23rd and at a program for the Brazoria County
Bar Association on March 9th. The Houston Bar Association program
will be available in videotape form, primarily for lawyers with birthdays in
March, April and May. On February 27th, he spoke on "Recent
Developments in Federal Income Taxation" at a national meeting of the IRS
Large and Mid-Size Business Division managing counsel held in Houston. He spoke
again on the same topic to the Houston Bar Association Tax Section on March
7th and to the Houston IRS CPA Society on March 15th.
He spoke on "Current Developments in Taxation" to the Wednesday Tax
Forum in February and March, and spoke on Tax Shelters to the same group in
February (with Geoffrey Koslov and Sherri Wilcox of Ernst & Young).